Smoked Spanish Meatballs recipe

When you’re looking for an awesome appetizer, give these Smoked Spanish Meatballs a try!  With ground pork and chorizo, these pack a lot of flavor in a small package, whether smoked or not.  As usual, I like to try and amp things up a bit and decided to smoke them.  I, trusting my grilling skills, did not use the convection plate in the ceramic cooker, so I got a bit more char than I would prefer.  I would use it next time.  A regular grill set up for indirect grilling will work as well.  

These are what I like to call “sneaky spicy.”  They aren’t overwhelmingly spicy but they will gently light a signal fire across your palate as you enjoy them.  You may buy mild or spicy chorizo.  I always purchase mild, as my super spicy days are behind me!
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Smoked Spanish Meatballs


  • Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
  • Yield: 25 meatballs 1x

Description

These make a delicious appetizer! While smoke-grilling them adds great flavor, in a pinch they can simply be baked!


Ingredients

Scale

For the Meatballs

  • 1 lb ground pork
  • 1/2 lb ground chorizo
  • 1 TBS minced garlic
  • 2 TBS onion (minced)
  • 2 TBS Italian parsley (chopped fine)
  • 1 cup bread crumbs
  • 2 eggs (beaten)
  • 1/4 cup milk

For the Sauce

  • 1 TBS olive oil
  • 2 TBS minced garlic
  • 1/2 onion (chopped)
  • 1 28oz can diced tomatoes
  • 2 TBS piquillo peppers (jarred) (diced)
  • 2 TBS Sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp paprika
  • 1/2 tsp chipotle chili powder
  • 2 TBS green onions (chopped, for garnish)

Instructions

  1. Set Big Green Egg or your smoker to run at 300 degrees with a couple of chunks of your favorite wood.

For the Meatballs

  1. Mix eggs and milk in a small bowl. Set aside. To a large bowl, add pork, chorizo, garlic, onion, parsley, bread crumbs, parmesan and paprika. Mix well. Add in milk and eggs and mix.
  2. Moisten your hands and form into meatballs approximately 1” in diameter. After rolling, place on a wire rack, then place rack in smoker. Allow to cook for 1 hour, rotating rack after 30 minutes, or until internal meatball temperature reaches 160 degrees. Place meatballs in an aluminum “half pan” and add sauce, allowing to cook for an additional 20 minutes. Remove from cooker and serve.

For the Sauce

  1. Add olive oil to a sauce pan over medium heat, then add onions and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add garlic and continue to cook for 2-3 minutes or until garlic starts to get golden. Add tomatoes, piquillo peppers, salt, chipotle powder, sugar and paprika and bring to a low boil, then reduce to a simmer. Simmer for 20 minutes, then using an immersion blender, pulse to smooth out the sauce (I don’t want it completely smooth.) You may also use a regular blender or food processor for this. Set sauce aside until meatballs are ready to put in pan.
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 1 hour

3 Responses

  1. I am looking forward to trying the recipe. One question though, in the instructions for making the meatballs you mention adding both parmesan and paprika but neither is in the list of ingredients for the meatballs. How much of each should be used?

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